Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (2006)

Probiotic potential of African fermented millet

Lei Vicki

Université de soutenance : Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University
Frederiksberg - Denmark

Grade : Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 2006

Résumé partiel Approximately 2 million children die yearly from diarrhoea-related diseases in the
African region. From this perspective alone there is a pressing need for low-cost,
easily accessible and acceptable ways of preventing and treating diarrhoea.
According to the literature, defined probiotic cultures have been shown to reduce and
prevent diarrhoea in children. However, the use of defined probiotic cultures in an
African setting does not meet the requirements described above. Fermented
products contain a high number of LAB with a probiotic potential and the use of
traditional African fermented products for treatment and prevention of diarrhoea is a
possibility.
Studies with defined probiotic cultures and diarrhoea have been carried out in mainly
industrialised countries however ; morbidity and mortality from diarrhoea are first and
foremost a grave matter of concern in developing countries. The potential of being
able to use a locally produced product as a probiotic treatment is considered to be
immense. With the low cost and the widespread availability in some populations with
high prevalence of
The hypothesis of this Thesis is, that traditional African fermented foods possess a
probiotic potential, which would alleviate and prevent diarrhoea in African children,
hence the aim was to investigate whether Ghanaian spontaneously fermented millet
possessed a probiotic potential, which could alleviate and prevent diarrhoea in
Ghanaian children. This was done by first studying the occurrence of lactic acid
bacteria (LAB) in spontaneously fermented millet from the Northern Region of Ghana
and isolating and identifying the predominant lactic acid bacteria. Second to estimate
the ability of predominant lactic acid bacteria isolates to survive the passage of the
gastro-intestinal tract by in vitro studies and then screen the isolates for antimicrobial
activity. Finally, a spontaneously fermented millet drink was investigated in a human
intervention study for ability to alleviate and prevent diarrhoea in children in Northern
Ghana